Doctors' Wellbeing

Looking after each other

As a resident doctor, you can find yourself in a new town, hundreds of miles from friends and family. But there is often strong support available from your new colleagues, in the shape of the doctors’ mess. Here, Sonya Bushell and Nitish Trikha describe how their messes help resident doctors socialise and integrate into the medical community

17.10.25

Back from the brink

Intense stress, and a feeling that no one is there to help, has tragically led to a number of doctors taking their own lives and caused others to consider it. To mark National Suicide Memorial Day for health and care workers, Seren Boyd meets those for whom it has a painful resonance

By Seren Boyd 17.09.25

Well versed – what poetry can bring to medicine

Why would a doctor write poetry? Given how some use it – as a coping mechanism in war and abusive situations, to help them better relate to patients and to combat burnout – they might ask, how can a doctor manage without it? By Seren Boyd

By Seren Boyd 06.08.25

Binning the beige buffet

Health service catering has tended to offer little in the way of either 'health' or 'service', but it's not all pie, chips and pop, as Ben Ireland discovered at a hospital determined to do better

By Ben Ireland 31.07.25

Redefining health

A GP wants to change the way her colleagues and patients think about health – and many say they have already benefited from the new approach. Jennifer Trueland reports

By Jennifer Trueland 06.05.25

Pushed beyond the limit

Paul Miller was an 'excellent' doctor who died after pressures at work led him to feel 'trapped and overwhelmed'. Ben Ireland attended his inquest and heard from family members about an intelligent, kind and modest man

By Ben Ireland 18.02.25

‘This can’t go on’

They were the words of a coroner but it didn't take a legal expert to recognise the harm wrought by a system where work is intense, admissions of ill-health carry a stigma and support services are either under financial threat or non-existent. Ben Ireland reports

By Ben Ireland 18.02.25

'No one knows about tomorrow': Doctors living with Parkinson's

Even doctors who treat patients with Parkinson's disease often take time to realise they have the condition themselves. Four tell Seren Boyd how their diagnosis has led to new priorities – and some positive change

By Seren Boyd 30.01.25